Murphy: You've come in this year and are playing under Mark Jackson for the first time. What's the Mo Speights evaluation of playing for Mark Jackson?

Speights: Oh, it's really fun playing for Mark Jackson. He's a players' coach. He played the game before, so he is always going to give you a chance to play. When I was struggling, and I wasn't really ready to play, he still gave me a chance, so that's why I respect him the most. He still gave me a chance; he never gave up on me. Coach Jackson is a really good coach.

Murphy: He's one of the great point guards of his era. Do you look at him differently because of his great playing career? Does he carry a certain respect because of what he did on the court?

Speights: He carries a lot of respect because he was a player who did a lot for this league, who played for a long time. He's never not coaching; it's always constant when you have a coach like that. He keeps guys trying to compete. He gets you into everything. We respect him a lot, everyone around the organization.

Murphy: After a weird stretch where you hovered around .500, you guys have had a big winning streak. What has been the difference in you guys winning all these games in a row?

Speights: We were just tired of losing. We're a good team, and we have a lot of expectations for this year. We finally got Andre (Iguodala) back - and I'm not saying that's why we were losing, but he's a big key to our team, and he does a lot of different things. We were just tired of losing, and we knew we could put a run together. Now that it's happening, we feel like after this road trip we should know where we're really at, and continue winning and going out there and playing hard every night.

Murphy: Stories are being written now about the number of enemies the Warriors are making - like the Clippers, and the Thunder, and Indiana last year. People are saying the Warriors are getting physical and even doing extra dirty stuff. How do you feel about your team having the reputation that you guys are willing to mix it up?

Speights: People are so used to the past, when the Warriors were down. After Stephen Jackson and them left, you used to come to Golden State and you always thought you could punk them. But now that teams know that it's not really going to be like that anymore, that's respect for us. That's knowing that every time people play against us, we're going to play tough and we're going to play smart.

Murphy: The Warriors had this reputation as a finesse team, and you guys have really gone about changing that. So that's what you're doing, you're playing tougher, right?

Speights: Yeah, we're playing tougher. Other teams just expect a soft team, but we're not soft anymore. We've got a lot of guys on the team that are all grit and grind. Players who are dogs, you know what I mean? Teams can't really look at us as soft anymore.

Murphy: I see that even though you've only been on the team for a few months, you stepped up and donated $5,000 to the City of Oakland's Holiday Dinner, which was going to be canceled if they didn't get some money. Can you tell us about how you decide to do something like that?

Speights: Yeah, I always feel like being able to do stuff like that is a blessing from God. When I was growing up, I didn't really have anyone in my community who could do that for us. Growing up with a single parent, in the community I come from, I feel like when opportunities like this come up I want to help. I know I can bless other people, and bless families who might not have any food for the holidays.